Grayling Blog

Hungary showing its potential

Posted on 5.07.2011 by Zsuzsanna Benyó

From the Hungarian perspective the country’s EU Presidency provided a great opportunity in terms of attracting attention to Hungary and thus creating not only greater awareness of the country but also casting it in a favourable light.

In addition, this historic event also provided the opportunity to bring the EU closer to the hearts and minds of Hungarians. Thus, when we talk about the question of whether Hungary’s EU Presidency can be considered successful, our review needs to be divided into two parts.

In a nutshell: Hungary was very convincing in terms of delivering good professional work, but there remain challenges regarding the country’s image.

In terms of raising awareness of Hungary, many people (even including myself) viewed this initially as a “quick win” since it must be easy to increase the amount of coverage of Hungary during its EU Presidency.

Yet when we analysed the related coverage in major media outlets, such as The Financial Times, we discovered that the coverage related to Hungary was actually less in the first half of 2011 than it was in the first half of 2010.

Obviously quantity is not necessarily the key indicator of success, but it does reveal the intensity of Hungary’s planned communications activities. Indeed, this must have been a very intense period for government officials, and the EU Presidency's communications teams certainly could have been more active in generating more positive news related to Hungary and the country's EU Presidency, despite the very active presence of the Presidency’s spokespeople on Twitter.

Having said that, the success factor can also be evaluated by examining whether any major decisions determining or strongly influencing the future of the EU have been reached during a country’s EU Presidency.

In this respect concluding the accession talks with Croatia is clearly a key achievement that will be linked to Hungary’s EU Presidency. But again, the only way that this will be a lasting success is if Hungary is communicating this effectively.

What has been achieved in terms of the other objective of bringing the EU closer to Hungarians?

There have been some good initiatives in this area such as Millenáris - EU Point and several cultural events targeting the masses, such as the Danube Days.

But again, despite the fact that many resources were ploughed into this, the majority of Hungarians did not even know that these events were a result of the EU or more precisely due to our EU Presidency.

Last but not least, like Prime Minister Orban, we should thank the media for their contribution in delivering the news on the EU Presidency and encourage both media and social media activists to continue writing about Hungary, where there is so much potential!